The convenience of wireless charging has drawn a lot of attention. What can be better than drop it off when you need to recharge the device and pick it back up after charging is done. Yet, I always wonder the efficiency. How good it can be?

On the other hands, there was powermat that you can literially drop your device on it to get charge and pick it back up. "Wreless Charging In a Box" lacks the convenience. Does it have better charging efficiency? It might have benefit of fast charging and less EMI problem to deal with. Question is whether you will trade fast charging over convenience if you are keen to wireless charging.

"The signals are received by electronics built into the charging device and then converted to DC energy"

I am assuming that the "charging device" mentioned here is some kind of RF energy harvesting device which converts RF energy into charging current. What is the kind of RF signal used? I wonder if the electronic gadgets with these "charging devices" would be capable of harvesting RF energy from mobile phones, wireless devices, radios etc. even when not kept inside those charging boxes...possible?

Till today portable electronics was not consumer power, but with this kind of devices being used for charging batteries will be consuming more power than required individually by the actual portable device. Yes it is better that it removes the charging connectors from the devices but at the same time it is equally required to be economical in terms of power consumption.

I think it is a natural market evolution @Dr Quine...some technologies, standards and companies will eventually die...at this point it is not clear who is the winner, BTW, the winner might be decided by a consumer company like Starbucks not by the technology company...Kris

I was going through an article on the same topic and learned that the efficiency of RF transmission would be ~90% and above for this device. So 10% of that would be dissipated as heat? Again some more would be dissipated by the receiver, the charging chip on the device being charged...don't know how much that would be.

It doesn't matter how many ways we develop to send power to a rechargeable device, we still need to have a compatible receiver on the device end. Just when standards are being set to ensure compatible charging cords for mobile phones, we seem to be spiraling into endless combinations and permutations of wireless charging protocols. Consumers probably just need to step away and allow the competition to play out.

In conjunction with unveiling of EE Times’ Silicon 60 list, journalist & Silicon 60 researcher Peter Clarke hosts a conversation on startups in the electronics industry. One of Silicon Valley's great contributions to the world has been the demonstration of how the application of entrepreneurship and venture capital to electronics and semiconductor hardware can create wealth with developments in semiconductors, displays, design automation, MEMS and across the breadth of hardware developments. But in recent years concerns have been raised that traditional venture capital has turned its back on hardware-related startups in favor of software and Internet applications and services. Panelists from incubators join Peter Clarke in debate.